Revised plan eases pain for volcano

The north-east cycleway will run from Pikes Pt to New Windsor. Picture / Brett Phibbs

A modified plan for a $4 million-plus cycleway along the northern slope of Mt Roskill above the State Highway 20 motorway extension, has appeased guardians of Auckland's volcanic cones.

Work has started on the $2.5 million job of building the eastern end of the 12km cycleway, which will eventually run from Pikes Pt in Southdown to New Windsor, but the route past Mt Roskill has been in doubt.

The Auckland Volcanic Cones Society believed its work with Transit NZ to minimise the effect of the $169 million motorway on Mt Roskill would be undermined by an Auckland City Council plan to cut out a 2m to 3m-wide cycleway.

The cycleway was also opposed by the Auckland Regional Council and the Conservation Department, prompting the city to commission a modified design from landscape architect Richard Reid, a cones society member working with Transit on the motorway.

It was Mr Reid's efforts which led to a change in the design of the motorway, replacing a planned steep retaining wall above a westbound on-ramp from Dominion Rd with a gradual contour to blend in the mountain with the road.

Now he has produced plans for the cycleway above it, which city council passenger transport manager Stuart Knarston says won verbal approval at a workshop from organisations including the Conservation Department and iwi.

Mr Knarston said he was waiting for written confirmation from some parties, but was confident of gaining overall support for Mr Reid's "more holistic" design, which includes landscaped park features and a narrower cut into the mountain than previously proposed.

Although most of the shared cycleway and pedestrian path would be 2.1m wide, he said it would narrow to 1.5m for 80m of the route along the slope of the mountain.

"It will follow the curve and contour of Mt Roskill," he said.

The eastern end of the cycleway, between Pikes Pt and Onehunga, is expected to be ready by November, but Mr Knarston said the council had some archeological work to finish on the Roskill section before applying for a resource consent.

But it had applied for a Land Transport NZ subsidy towards the estimated $1.5m to $2m cost of building the cycleway between Hillsborough Rd and the New Windsor end of the 4km motorway extension.

That would be on top of the $2.5m price of the eastern section, most of which is being covered by an Infrastructure Auckland grant.

Volcanic Cones Society chairman John Street described the new proposal as a perfect compromise, compared with the council's earlier plan, which he said would have been a "disaster" for what was left of the mountain.

Cycle Action Auckland spokesman John Gregory said his organisation would have preferred a wider passage, but accepted a need for a compromise.

The cycleway will link with other work being done as part of the new motorway project.

Transit NZ is building six bridges over the motorway. Two will be for the exclusive use of cyclists and pedestrians, and the rest will be for general traffic.

A sweeping 150m cable-supported cycle and foot-bridge between Keith Hay Park and Mt Roskill Grammar School is due to be completed by the end of next month at a cost of $1.6 million.

It is expected to carry about 2000 people a day, mainly school students.

Work is also progressing on a similar but smaller bridge, due to be completed in December for $750,000 between Ernie Pinches St and Stoddard Rd, just short of a new traffic roundabout which will join the end of the motorway to an extension of Sandringham Rd.

Both bridges will be connected to the cycleway, which will run under a traffic bridge being built for $6 million over the motorway route in May Rd, west of the Roskill mountain.

Another diversion route is scheduled to open in early October in Dominion Rd, so a bridge can be built as part of the motorway interchange there.

Traffic bridges will also be built between Hayr Rd and Melrose Rd, and as part of an interchange between Hillsborough Rd and the motorway.